Why are Modern Cricket Cards so Rare? Exploring Licensing and Brand Trends

[loosebazchange]

Being a collector and enthusiast of cards of multiple sports, I always wonder why there are so few modern cricket card releases, especially when compared to other popular sports like baseball, football, basketball, F1, soccer, and wrestling. It's surprising that big brands like Topps and Panini have not acquired licenses for major cricket events like the IPL or the Cricket World Cup, which could be very profitable. While the other sports have had multiple yearly releases of highly-profitable high-quality hobby products from Topps and Panini, the world of cricket cards is yet to experience a similar boom.

When Topps came into the Indian market in 2011, there was glimpse of hope for a fresh start, because the Cricket Attax IP got such an unprecedented amount of success, both in India and around the world. They released sets for the IPL for 7 years, and sets for the 2014 WT20 and the 2015 CWC, after which they stopped everything. Panini don't seem to be showing any interest in cricket, which doesn't make any sense to me, since they have gone full blown at soccer, WWE, UFC, NBA, and the NFL with the same marquee IPs across all sports, all of which have high demand.

Is the lack of demand the reason for this, or are there other factors at play? Is it possible that the lack of interest in cricket cards is due to the sport's popularity being concentrated in a few countries, or is it a result of the lack of marketing efforts by the cricketing world? Could it be due to concerns by manufacturers of a lack of understanding of the game's appeal by the consumers? Is it because cricket cards don't have scope of being a worthy collectible? Are there any licensing restrictions specific to cricket?

 

[jj76]

Your comments are very interesting given that in Australia the sports with most participants are AFL, netball then cricket - so should be lots of potential collectors there and in India it is most popular sport by a long way. As for cricket being concentrated in a few countries that landscape is changing just look at the tier 2 cricket nations slowly getting bigger and better - in the India region you have Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan and up comers like Nepal - in Europe Netherlands is improving (and I was there a few years ago and was surprised by the numbers of games being played on Saturday. It is a pity that West Indies is in a bit of disarray and hopefully that can be fixed. In Africa as well as South Africa we have zimbarway, and several other nations close by - so chances are collectors will get bigger albeit slowly - problem we have in Australia is a small population and small collector base whereas in USA there are estimated to be 63m collects in any given year.
I can't answer many of your questions but I have collected cricket cards from 1995 on and have nearly all common cards and albums and many specials.
A vert good post by you cheers john

 

[Avonc]

There are a few commercial sets out there now , Aust has Traders covering BBL plus their international teams.
England has Topps Hundred sets for a couple of years. But I think the licence fees are scaring off an international
releases. The norm in Australia was local players, Australian national team and any teams that were touring
that summer would be in the release. That ended (baring Ashes set a few years back in 1998/99.
It would be great to have World Cup sets for sure.
With cricket been pushed more and more in The US , the home of sports trading cards we may see something
happening soon. We can only hope.

 

[The Mad Hatter]

The last set with internationals was 2017/18 Ashes and before that 1998/99.
Sad we never got a 1991/92 or 1992/93 Scanlens/Stimorol set with India and WI.
I don’t know why it costs so much in licences as it costs a lot in fan engagement with kids without them.

 

[taffster74]

As others have said, licensing is a big part of it. Basically, it boils down to this - sponsorship varying from country to country and there not being a governing agency like with Fifa. Unfortunately, if any one were to put out a set it would wind up being around au$150 a pack just to cover the contracts with each nation and sponsor. Ditto for rugby union.

 

[Matt26]

As others have said, licensing is a big part of it. Basically, it boils down to this - sponsorship varying from country to country and there not being a governing agency like with Fifa. Unfortunately, if any one were to put out a set it would wind up being around au$150 a pack just to cover the contracts with each nation and sponsor. Ditto for rugby union.

Tap N Play did hold the licence with the ICC which covered the major tournaments for a period (so you could print all the teams in that tournament) however doing a licence with each individual country on their own would be hard. Even the IPL teams have separate licences so if you wanted all the teams its a separate deal with each individual team.

While Cricket cards do ok in Australia, there isn't a huge market for them in the other countries and India is a massive challenge having something that is affordable to the masses but still make money and cover the licencing fees. Digital cards via an app in India make a lot of sense when you have 1.2 Billion Mobile Phone users and 600 Million smart phone users there.

The best bet for all teams in a release would be someone like Fanatics producing a Topps Chrome style set like what Panini does with the Soccer World Cup.

Outside of that I think we would be stuck with the Australian release and some smaller niche releases in other countries.

 

[loosebazchange]

Even the IPL teams have separate licences so if you wanted all the teams its a separate deal with each individual team.

Was this the case when Topps released the IPL Cricket Attax cards? I doubt striking a separate deal with each team is the only way, since even with new teams coming in such as SRH, RPS, and GT, Topps managed to add in the teams and the players immediately to their next collection. However, on many occasions, the players of a particular team didn't have sponsors on their jerseys, so I assume that requires having a separate deal of some sort with the individual team. I'm not aware if anything has changed since then.

and India is a massive challenge having something that is affordable to the masses but still make money and cover the licencing fees.

I think Topps and Panini have found a way to deal with this in Soccer, by having a wide range of products for a season, ranging from simple and cheaper playing-card-style sets such as Match Attax and Adrenalyn XL, to more premium hobby sets such as Chrome, Prizm, or Select, all the way to extremely expensive high-quality sets made of thick card stock, such as Transcendent, Immaculate, and others. Although it is a very risky step to take in the cricket market, in theory I feel it should sort of work, since the cheap playing cards can appeal to kids and casuals, and Topps have found great success in India with all of their Attax products with the pricing. And collectors or resellers could buy the costlier products to get good hits of good players, and resell for a higher value among other collectors. This model has found decent success for Panini with the English, Italian, and (recently) Spanish soccer leagues.